Any interest in a 1,000 mi, tank club or contest?

Hey Marc, let's put our heads together to find a loop somewhere in the DC area where we can try this! I was using Route 28 out near Dulles airport, but it proved to have more traffic,in the midnight to 6 am period than I had anticipated, plus more elevation change than desirable.
Can we tag team the driving so we do not each go crazy with boredom whilst puttering along at 25mph? Is that allowed in Bob's rules?

 

Robert....you did not by chance ever live down in Florida did you???

what about the dulles airport access... you could go from Arlington to dulles and back.. about 40 miles one way...

of coure you have the beltway. but you'd get run over at anything less than 50 GW parkway...no lights, but not really flat either....

from rt 7 to 66 on 28 is probably not a bad trip.. to get flat land though we'd need to go east...

think dulles airport would let us run laps overnight...or maybe we head out to summit point... but then you get too many hills. We could rent out Richmond International raceway for 1400 laps at 25mph it would take a solid 40 hours...

I think one further restriction on the trip needs to be that you CANNOT run the tank dry, IE run out of gas.

 

its impossible to tell if someone ran 1000 miles on a single tank. the car doesn't indicate that either.

The whole contests is "Corinthian" in nature. if someone is going to lie about running out of gas, they'll lie about going 1000 miles on a tank of gas...

 

Bonneville Salt Flats allowed? This is an impossible task for a New Yorker. I've tried hyper-miling it on the LIE at night and even that's impossible.

 

Duh....too many gin and tonics last night... for got about basic math...and what the displayed showed...

 

We've camped a lot in Florida but never officially resided there.
Not sure Homeland Security will be OK with us running laps around the Dulles runways all night long and although I used to know the guy operating the airport, I think he has since retired.

I've used the rt 28 corridor for trials at 55 and 45, but too much traffic to go slower even at 5am on Sunday. Also has noticeable elevation changes.

Dulles toll road might work, but would my EZ pass be charged for each leg?? That could get prohibitively expensive. But we could swap drivers at the Dulles airport lounge which would be convenient, especially if they don't mind us sleeping there between stints.

Summit point too hilly for this I agree. Richmond speedway might work, so need to check it out for hills and judge affordability of rental fee for say a 48 hour lease.

 

I've figured it out!!! Set up a home-made, dyno-like contraption. Strap in the car, floating on the dyno wheels and let it coast EV mode. Sit outside, open a can of beer. Done.

 

robert. I dulles airport access... not the toll portion... at the end of the airport access but before it turn s into 66 you could do a u turn int he median otherwise you'd have go all the way into arlington to do a u turn on city streets and stoplights...

if you had a switchable ez pass we could use the HOT lanes on 495...

but going so slow would draw some attention..

 

Whoa, that sent me to Google for the "Corinthian contest " concept, where I found the quote from the King James Version (I'm old fashioned.) :

"And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible."

Well, I guess we couldn't be much more "temperate" than driving a car at 25 mph for almost two days straight! The incorruptible crown should be non biodegradable plastic crown or laurel wreathe, I guess, but that would fit with the cheap, tacky prizes planned for the contest by the OP.

I was more thinking it would be a "Pyrrhic Victory", but I suppose it is entirely possible to have a Pyrrhic Victory in a Corinthian Contest.

Have found non-alcohol gas in Wisconsin and will try for 600-700 mile tank, and will report back on results if DW does not strangle me when we run out of gas. That might be part of the solution, assuming it is not part of the precipitate..(the gas, not the strangling)

Will check out Dulles access road for feasibility when next possible and check for elevation changes and look for that U turn spot, but do you really think we can do a steady 25 on it? Isn't there a minimum legal speed on it?

 

yeah I'm sure the Metro Airport police would give us a bunch of crap for only going 25mph in a 55 zone... no matter what time... and there is some elevation...

 

A 1000 mile tank might be possible in our Prius Vagon, but a cheat that restricts the car to competition type driving for the duration is needed:

• No wife driving
• No highways
• No short trips

 

bob... you are too funny... of course not that you'd know unless you lived here...

doing circles around the "richie rich mall"... and 4 traffic lights that affect cross traffic... we'd not stand a snowballs chance in hell.... I'd venture to say the cops would stop us within the first hour....there would be no way we could get a stint with out having traffic issues..

one of the problems with living in a metro area...

 

bob,

I've been here since 2000, its pretty amazing how much change has occurred in 14 years...

problem with nova is finding flat land...light traffic and a route to minimize stops/hard turns in a setting where you can get away with going 25-30 mph without getting shot..

its going to be difficult to find a suitable location thats for sure..

is 25 the ideal speed for max mpg?

 

Hi Bob,

This sounds like fun. Count me in. Just a thought have you check with Toyota about using there test track at the Georgetown KY factory. That might work good.